Basketball starts this week for ASU men

Ready or not, the college basketball season is just about set to begin. For Augusta State, they actually have a couple of exhibition games scheduled for later this week.

And they won't be easy as the Jags battle division one foes George Washington, who made the tournament a year ago, and Virginia.

Dip Metress has just two starters back but one of them is forward Tyrekus Bowman who led the team in scoring and rebounding. That's the good. The bad, they lost point guard Karim Telfer and will likely start a freshmen in that spot.

These first two games could get interesting.

"It's a whole different level, so that gives us a chance to experience some different things outside the Peach Belt," Bowman said. "But we expect them to be bigger, stronger, quicker, but that doesn't mean they'll be able to out hustle us and out play us."

"G.W. and UVA will be teams that definitely expose our lack of experience there, but that's why we're going up there and play," Metress said. "And we have three guys from the Washington D.C. area, and tickets are a premium for them, and they're excited about getting up there, and we're excited about making the trip"

The Peach Belt conference coaches are still impressed with Metress's team and have pegged them fifth in the preseason conference poll. The team is also very international with players from the Congo, Lithuania, and Australia. Metress might need to be multi-lingual by the end of the year.

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